Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati

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ऊँ सर्वे भवन्तु सुखिनः सर्वे सन्तु निरामयाः । सर्वे भद्राणि पश्यन्तु मा कश्चिद् दुःखभाग्भवेत ।।

Arya Samaj is one of SarvaShiva’s guiding lights; it’s 10 principles one of the foundations of our belief system, and its founder Maharishi Dayanand Saraswati one of our Gurus.

Swami Ji battled the 1000 year old, corrupt, brutal Hindu clergy for the common Hindu who was denied access to Vedas and worship based on caste and gender. He preached Vedas in Hindi so masses could understand what was deliberately held obscure, in Sanskrit, by the Brahmins who had the monopoly of that language, thus on Word of God.

Swami Ji, along with Raja Ram Mohan Roy, was perhaps the greatest friend Hindu women have ever had. He fought Sati and Devadasi traditions. He championed womens right for education and to pray alongside men.

In his India, a slave nation for 800 years, realizing that, Vidya (education and knowledge) was the most powerful and necessary tool to propel India out of dogma and poverty, Swami Ji became a Messiah for literacy for the masses, and Arya Samaj the largest provider of formal curriculum based education at village level in Northern India, therefore Arya Samaj and Swami Ji are one of the pillars of modern India’s success as an intellect driven nation.

There is evidence of greater prosperity and social emancipation in the regions where Arya Samaj was practiced, evidently because Arya Samaj encouraged common people to learn, participate, fight ignorance by questioning the clergy, be free, be independent human beings, which they were denied for almost 800 years. Satyarth Prakash is Swami Ji’s treatise on Veda’s and Conduct of Living.

Swami Dayanand Saraswati was a Brave Warrior in a nation of cowards, and the synthesis of his teachings is:

1. God is the efficient cause of all true knowledge and all that is known through knowledge.
2. God is existent, intelligent and blissful. He is formless, omniscient, just, merciful, unborn, endless, unchangeable, beginning-less, unequalled, the support of all, the master of all, omnipresent, immanent, un-aging, immortal, fearless, eternal and holy, and the maker of all. He alone is worthy of being worshiped.
3. The Vedas are the scriptures of all true knowledge. It is the paramount duty of all Aryas to read them, teach them, recite them and to hear them being read.
4. One should always be ready to accept truth and to renounce untruth.
5. All acts should be performed in accordance with Dharma that is, after deliberating what is right and wrong.
6. The prime object of the Arya Samaj is to do good to the world, that is, to promote physical, spiritual and social good of everyone.
7. Our conduct towards all should be guided by love, righteousness and justice.
8. We should dispel Avidya (ignorance) and promote Vidya (knowledge).
9. No one should be content with promoting his/her good only; on the contrary, one should look for his/her good in promoting the good of all.
10. One should regard oneself under restriction to follow the rules of society calculated to promote the well being of all, while in following the rules of individual welfare all should be free.

SarvaShiva believes that being Hindu may not be easy because of the numerous interpretations of the numerous Books, but the 10 precepts of Arya Samaj simplify Hindu conduct and direct one to one relationship with God.